Today is a good day

Oh joy.

Today is such a wonderful day that I almost feel slightly ill with guilt from it all.

Not only does it look like spring might have finally sprung (touch wood) but a whole host of lovely press-related stuff has happened to Unchained - leaving me wandering the sunny streets with a delirious grin on my face.

I walked to the shop in the lovely sunshine to buy The Evening Standard today because we are in it. The newspaper had contacted us last week to get a shortlist of shops to feature in their article about independent shops. We provided them with the list and today they made an appearance on page 25. You can also read what they said online but unfortunately they just have information about us online and not the list of shops.


Then Andrea at The London Traveler said lovely things about us on the blog. Thank you Andrea, we love you right back.

And finally (as if all those very delicious things aren't good enough) I finally found an article the Scotsman wrote about us a month or so ago. My parents live in Scotland and bought a copy of the newspaper after Alastair Jamieson interviewed me. But then my father went and chucked it - oops. Don't worry Dad, it's all sorted thanks to the marvels of the interweb.

I was really keen to see this article because it's about something we feel quite strongly about - reviews on websites. We thought long and hard about whether we wanted to include reader reviews on the site and I'm very pleased we decided not to. First of all, there are thousands of sites out there full of opinions. We think our professional endorsement of the shops on our site is enough. Also, and please tell me if you think the same thing, I often read reviews and just don't believe them. These often gleaming reviews of people's food and drink sound like their mothers have all logged on and praised their offspring. Similarly, sometimes the bad reviews just sound too bad. I can't help but wonder if it's a competitor, or even worse, a disgruntled ex-member of staff.

What do you think? Is there a site that you trust and always check with before venturing out? Do you have a doo-d00-filter for the reviews you read? I'd love to know what you reckon.

As for me, I'm off to be unreasonably delighted with life. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.